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The unofficial English scans of Jujutsu Kaisen chapter 167 shed new light on the Culling Game.
With the character Reggie theorizing about the true motives of Kenjaku and the others involved in the Culling Game, the most complex concept in the Jujutsu Kaisen manga so far gets even more complicated.
Note: This article contains spoilers.
Reggie’s theory brings new light to the purpose of the Culling Game in Jujutsu Kaisen chapter 167
The Culling Game is first introduced in chapter 143 as a ritual that Kenjaku has begun in order to get Lord Tengen to Merge with humanity, and to help them evolve to a state where everyone has cursed energy and Curse Technique.
Essentially, the Culling Game divides Japan into multiple Barriers or Colonies, and traps the participants within these boundaries. Kenjaku, in preparation, had marked many non-sorcerers throughout the years, who have now awakened as sorcerers due the Curse Technique Idle Transfiguration, which Kenjaku acquired from Mahito. Fushiguro Tsumiki is one of these people.
Rules
The Culling Game comes with eight pre-existing rules that cannot be overwritten, but new rules can be added. However, there are severe restrictions placed on the adding of a rule, with a lot of leeway given to the game masters, a personal Shikigami called Kogane. Kenjaku has not made himself the game-master, thus ensuring that the Culling Game can go on even after his death.
Information and Transfer of points
In lieu of rule eight, a player must have a change in their points every 19 days, which requires killing. In order to avoid that, Fushiguro Megumi and Itadori Yuuji devise a plan to get one of the players who already have 100 points to add a new rule to the Culling Game, so that players can transfer points between themselves.
This way Yuuji, Megumi, and their allies can keep playing The Culling Game and search for Tsumiki, as well as a way to free Gojo Satoru from the prison realm, all without having to kill anyone. Yuuji achieves this by convincing Higuruma Hiromi to use his 100 points to add the transfer rule to the Culling Game. Before that, Kahimo Hajime uses their 100 points to add a new rule that allows players to see the information of other players.
Reggie’s theory
In Jujutsu Kaisen chapter 167, during their confrontation, Reggie brings up a new point to Megumi. He says that the use of the cursed energy of the players is only a secondary plan. The true motive behind the Culling Game is something else. He bases this off of three observations.
1) The number of Players
Firstly, Reggie says that if 1000 sorcerers were to be distributed among 10 colonies evenly, there would be 100 sorcerers amongst the players of a colony. But the numbers are not evenly distributed.
2) The difference in the ability of the players
Even without considering the difference in the ability of a sorcerer and a non-sorcerer, there are glaring differences between the abilities of different sorcerers. Kashimo and Higuruma have culled 60 sorcerers between them already.
As Megumi infers that the first stage of the Culling Game aims at eliminating everyone but the strongest few in every colony, Reggie informs him that it already has in the colony they are currently at, Tokyo colony number 2.
3) The barrier rule
Reggie then reveals that when a player enters a barrier, they are teleported to a separate barrier, which is what happened with Megumi and Yuuji. This teleportation not only scatters the players, but it also acts as an awakening to enhance the Curse Technique, to trigger a secondary awakening, and a large number of people do not survive that.
Final thoughts
It is clear from Reggie’s points that harnessing the Curse Energy of the players to trigger a nationwide evolution is only a secondary goal of the Culling Game. Kenjaku has much more in store, and from his meeting with the Chinese authorities in the next panel of Jujutsu Kaisen chapter 167, it becomes certain that a sinister development is afoot.
It will only be cleared with the release of Jujutsu Kaisen chapter 168. Readers can support the mangaka by reading the official translation which will be available on Viz.com, Manga Plus, and Shueisha’s other online platforms on December 5th.
